Advantage Management Review

Avoid dealing with this poor excuse of a company at all costs. Although the word "management" is their title, I assure you, their business practices hardly reflect any modicum of actual management. I lived in a building managed by Jennifer Hallisey, one of their property managers. I cannot count on my fingers and toes the amount of issues I had in a brief 7 month experience with the ineptitude of this woman and the company she represents. Flooded floors, mold, ruined carpet, awful cable/internet contracts that will get canceled and leave you with nothing, complete lack of professionalism and communication. I would not be surprised if corporate sends all of their property managers to a retreat where they learn the art of being stuck up, entitled, and completely inept. I've lived in multiple cities and have been renting for over 10 years and have yet to encounter anything this bad. Avoid at all costs.

I've never had a worse experience as a renter dealing with a management company. They are unresponsive/impossible to get a hold of, and grossly neglect serious matters until residents call for days on end. Hoping our building finds a new management company soon because it's unbearable.

Unethical, incompetent greedy liars. This company engage in business activities that are in conflict with the fiduciary duty they are entrusted and over charges the residents. The property manager, a man named Eric Ruby is a vindictive and rude liar who's accustomed to use intimidation and coerce strategy. Please ask around any and all buildings before using their services. Would not want more people to get bullied by this shady business.

This building management group is useless and a headache every time you have to deal with them. Unless you re the board president, expect any correspondence with them to be ignored or responded with severe delays. Never email Eric Ruby, despite all of the paperwork you receive with his contact information. I sent him a dozen emails on various accounts and he never once responded. When you finally find a way to get in communication with them, expect the work to be sloppy. Efforts as simple as having a correct phone number in the building callbox is like asking them to develop a cure for cancer.

My experience with this company, is only in the form of witnessing a close associate of mine rent a condominium through them. From my observations, I have come to the conclusion, that this company has poor decision making in terms of hiring. It's choice of property managers seems to be where most of the problems arise. Ms. Michelle Griffin is the best (worst) example of this.
While she did not utilize deceptive managerial practices-- a common issue amongst most Chicago rental properties-- she was, however, very combative and unprofessional when my associate had repair needs within their condo. Ms. Griffin swore at, yelled at and threatened to evict them, for simply (a) wanting repairs made and (b) asking for updates on the repair orders. After these actions, my thoughts of AM, is that this company seems to prefer hiring staff with a blatant disregard to professionalism and basic decorum. I would like to see said company do an overhaul of their staff and give them lessons in basic human-to-human interactions.

This company is garbage company. They handle Runawaybay condos at Palatine il. AC is not working from last 3 months and they dont fix it. They earn money from towing company. They dont notify for new sticker and tow my brand new car. I ordered new phone from amzon and somebody stole it. So be careful before you go in this office.

If you do not have to deal with this company consider yourself lucky.
The remaining reviews are correct. The property manager we had to deal with is rude and unprofessional who always shifts the blame to cover for work not completed by management company. You can call and try to reach anyone if you are not sure if these reviews are correct and I am confident that lack of response will show you that reviews are from people who have had a misfortune to deal with the company. There a MANY better companies in this city that will provide financial responsible management of the condominiums then this company. Stay away from this company.

Where is the option for zero stars? Seriously! This place should not even be called a management company. Michelle Griffin is the absolute worst! She is a thief, and she is definitely stealing peoples hard earned money. Assessment goes up every year/special assessments added and nothing is done. I have so many examples to explain. Michelle Griffin is absolutely horrible, she is clueless! Very nasty person. Does not return phone calls and emails. Very shady person to say the least. I could go on and on I hope no one considers using them.

Extremely unprofessional, apathetic and unresponsive group of people. Along with many other residents in our condo building, had a terrible experience with them. They sent out only one email about a hefty special assessment to the wrong email addresses, never once followed up on it, and then ended up sending residents into collections when they didn't get the payments. Never owned up to their poor communication or offered any explanation, continued to ignore the residents. Please don't waste your time with them.

They do not deserve even a single star. They sent our special assessment to collection agency because they kept sending us notifications on a wrong email id with just one letter wrong in my email id. They are true extortionists. They do not even accept their mistake even though they themselves sent us the scans of the wrong emails. They say they sent one postal mail which we never received. Please try to find a better management company to rent or buy with than them.

I personally have limited my involvement with this company to as little as possible. There is not one person I know that would suggest them as a management company. How they are still here must be due to a contract. If my landlord was not so cool I never would have stayed. The building workers are great and are not a product of the Management company s culture.

Buzz words:

Rude
Condescending.
Unhelpful
Did I mention rude!!
Terrible relationship with tenets, universally!
The way in which they communicate is simply put, aggressive.

I m a home owner and I have rented.

I Never seen a company such as this. The rhetoric in communications is condescending and belittling. Like a father talking to a child that has done wrong.

In looking for another place to live I will simply not consider any property managed by Advantage.

Advantage managed a Condo Building where I was Board President for many years. They are absolutely professional and forward looking. They are there with bells on when there is any kind of an emergency. In my humble opinion, one cannot do better than them. Disturbed renters are not quality reviews.

Very unprofessional company. Managers are late to the appointments, they don t reply to the complaints, emails, phone calls, etc. I hope not to deal with them in future! They don t deserve even a one star rating.

I have had nothing but horrible experiences with this company. I live in the Avenue Square condominiums in Oak Park. On May 1st I woke up to a leaking wall and standing water in my living room. I called the emergency line at 6:30am and left a message. I now called in sick to work and waited to hear back from them- I did not hear back from anyone until about 30 minutes until their office closed (I called multiple times throughout the day leaving messages) when they informed me I was not experiencing an emergency and no one would be coming out. Linda threatened to hang up on me if I did not stop talking when I said this was unacceptable. For the next TWO months I dealt with leaks from this wall every time it rained. The drywall and trim was completely destroyed. Finally on July 10 they sent someone out to removed the destroyed drywall. Under the drywall the frame and exterior wall were horribly damaged. You could see rot, mold and decay. THEY LEFT THIS WALL LIKE THIS FOR 4 WEEKS!! During this time Donna would not return phone calls and emails. I dealt with debris falling all day, everyday. And then the icing on the cake was when roaches appeared in week 4. I repeatedly requested someone come and cover the wall and the falling debris was ruining my furniture and belongings and I was forced to call an exterminator and am out hundreds of dollars due to their negligence. Finally on August 7 they sent a crew to cover the wall, still no word on when actual work would be done. A few hours after the crew left I receive a call that they will be back the very next day to hang drywall... what?! While I now have a wall there has still been no work done on the outside of the building to prevent this from happening again and I m still dealing with this pest issue. What they are doing should be considered a crime.

Zero itself is too much for these people. Absolutely ridiculous service. Dont answer emails, calls, dont return calls. Any requests are ignored and behaves as if they are doing a favor. My downed tree blocking my entry and garage remained unattended for 3 days despite me trying to reach out to them multiple times. Sent photos lefts VMs but to no use. Had to get the tree removed and my driveway cleared all by myself. Neal Shamis is a useless manager. Worthless to the core. Dont ever take service of these nuts.

Took me a week to talk to the building manager and even when scheduled, they do not call back.

THE WORST ASSOCIATION POSSIBLE! They make appointments with you that they can't keep and do a no call no show. I wasted 5 hours waiting for Bernice Garcia to show up with my front door staff to see a problem in my unit. They do nothing positive in this building besides lie and waste tenants time. Stay away from any building that uses this management company.